Rocket Mortgage Classic: What’s in a name? How Cameron Davis became Cam

Call it the year of Cam.

On the PGA Tour, it is almost a weekly battle to be low-Cam or Cameron in the field. After all, Cameron Smith has won the Players Championship and British Open and ranks second in the world, Cameron Young contended in two majors and is a favorite for PGA Tour Rookie of the Year and Cameron Tringale keeps banking paychecks and hanging around the top 50 in the world. Cameron Percy and Cameron Champ are the outliers, who aren’t exactly tearing it up this season, but Rocket Mortgage Classic defending champion Cam Davis seems to have found his stride, finishing T-16 or better in his last three starts.

“I don’t know, something in the name. I’m proud that the Camerons are doing well. It’s nice to be one of them,” he said in a pre-tournament press conference ahead of the Rocket Mortgage Classic. “I don’t know what it is, but it seems to be a popular name in a certain age range at the moment. We’ll see if any more turn up. I think there’s still a few more in the pipeline on their way up here, so we’ll see.”

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Sometime last year, Davis said he noticed something different when his name flashed on leaderboards.

“My name got changed to Cam just out of nowhere, so I think I know why. I think we needed something to start defining us a little bit more as individuals because we all just seem to be collecting out here,” he said. “I wasn’t notified or anything, just all of a sudden my name started turning up on the leaderboard as Cam instead of Cameron. I’m like I guess someone’s made the executive decision because there’s too many of us now, so I don’t know. I’m fine with it, it’s all good.”

He added: “Cam’s fine, Cam’s on my bag. I really don’t mind, to be honest. For a long time, Cam was what my family called me. So I’m happy to feel like family out here now, so Cam’s good.”